According to this article an infection is currently threatening Britain's oak trees. The disease which has killed millions of oak trees in California is now a threat in Britain. It is thought to be as deadly as Dutch Elm disease which is responsible for wiping out millions of trees. In an effort to control it thousands of diseased trees are being felled. In 2003 it was present in a handful of oak trees but it has since jumped species and began infecting Japanese and European larch trees. Larch makes up around 5% of the forest cover in Britain so it has the potential to spread rapidly. The main problem is people carrying spores from infected forest areas on their tyres and boots.

According to this article it will soon cost £70 to fill up the average family car. Prices are expected to reach a record high when they go up another 8p a litre on the 1st of April. This will push the cost of unleaded petrol up to £1.36 a litre and diesel to £1.40 a litre. The increases mean that it will cost £70 to fill a car with a 50 litre tank. The cost 12 months ago would have been £56, meaning an increase of as much as 25% over this period. It certainly is becoming very expensive to run a car but with public transport being hugely expensive and unreliable, in many cases a car journey is the only option.

According to this article retailers are increasingly using scent in their stores. A Canadian company called Mood Media has been working with 20,000 different stores in Britain to help boost their sales. They use a combination of techniques including sound and visual media, with the latest trend being the use of scent. Popular scents include Lotus Flower and Enchanted Apple. The company has already created scents for Habitat, Timberland and Guest. The perfumes are pumped out through the air conditioning units and are aimed at making the customer stay in the store longer. The smells have to be subtle so that the customers don’t notice it except on a subconscious level.

Cadbury’s Somerdale plant has recently produced its last bar of chocolate. The plant near Keynsham in Bristol has been open since 1919. The company was recently taken over by the American firm Kraft. They had initially promised to keep the Somerdale plant open but then decided to close it and instead move production to Poland. A skeleton staff of 50 people will remain on the site to handle maintenance until March 2011.

Whilst this may not look like the clearest picture when you take into account this cat has only been spotted a few times in the last 100 years it is fairly unusual. The cat is a Bornean Bay Cat which lives within the Borneo rainforest. It is thought there are only around 50 of them left in existence and it is rarely seen.

I have often wondered why car manufacturers seem to spend time creating new electric cars rather than working on improving an existing and popular model. I was interested, then to see that Ford has just released an electric version of the Ford Focus. The new Focus looks like a Focus rather than looking like an electric car. It is not yet clear how far the car will go on a charge or how much it is but I think Ford are on the right track producing an electric version of one of their most popular cars.

The BMW 3 Series topped the list as the most popular second hand car of 2010. The figures which come from Auto Trader found that the BMW 3 Series was the most searched for car on its website last year. It was followed by the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and Audi A4. I’m surprised by the figures as I see many more Ford Focus cars around than any other make.

If you are unlucky enough to have had swine flu then there could be a positive side to you catching the virus. Scientists believe that those who recover from swine flu are left with an extraordinary ability to fight off flu viruses. This is because in beating the H1N1 virus the body makes antibodies that can kill a number of other flu strains. The findings from the the Journal of Experimental Medicine could lead to a universal flu vaccine being developed that would protect against all strains of influenza. I will be interested to see how often I get sick after my recent severe bout of flu. With any luck I have this super immunity.

If this article is correct the average woman spends £71 in the sales on clothes that they will never wear. One of the main problems appears to be buying clothing in a size that is too small hoping that they can slim down to fit into it. All of these sales bargain amount to £3.5 billion worth of clothes that will just sit at the back of the wardrobe. I have been fairly restrained this year when it comes to the sales but I know I have a lot of sale “bargains” sitting in my wardrobe from previous years that I am yet to wear.

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